‘Axis of Evil’ Label’s Effects On Youth In Iran

Sarmast focuses on how the last decade has taken its toll on Iranian youth.

Neda Sarmast is a member of the Iranian diaspora. Her family left the country while she was still a small girl.

As a teen a short visit to the country turned into a two year stay when the Iran-Iraq war broke out.

Over the years Sarmast says she has become increasingly bothered by depictions of her native country in the media. But after President George W. Bush’s “Axis of Evil” speech – in which he declared Iraq, Iran and North Korea an axis of evil in the world – Sarmast decided she needed to do something.

“There are many times when I see something on the news and, it may be valid from a political standpoint, but if you’re gonna show this why don’t you also show the other side?” Sarmast says.

More Than Politics

She says Iranians are often painted as bad guys and people watching the news get a myopic view of what Iran is like. “There’s many different layers to the country. There’s many different conversations. Why only cover the political side? Why only cover the political angle?”

What Sarmast finally decided to do was shoot a film that would give American viewers an idea of what life is like for every day Iranians. So, in 2005 the former music industry pro began traveling to Iran with camera and crew in tow. Seventy percent of Iran’s population at the time was under 30 and Sarmast decided it was they – the youth of Iran – she would focus on in her film, Nobody’s Enemy.

Sarmast spoke to young people on the streets during a political protest, to a young college student in her apartment and to a roundtable of Iranians partially conducted during a black out. The roundtable produced one of the more tense moments in the film as two young men began debating whether or not Iran would be at war with the United States soon.

“At the time when we were filming it was the height of the U.S.-Iraq war,” Sarmast says. “And Iran was surrounded with American soldiers so there was definitely the possibility of a conflict with Iran. It was around the same time that George Bush talked about the ‘Axis of Evil’ and it really hurt me here in the U.S. when I heard that. It really hurt the people of Iran.”

Young Heads Of Household

Among the young people she spoke to in Iran was rapper Yas. He’s been called the Persian Tupac because so much of what he raps about comes from real life. His father died in his arms when he was 18 and he’s spent his life since helping to raise his younger siblings.

At one point in the film he wonders how he’s going to be able to pay for college for his three younger sisters.

Sarmast felt like so much of what Yas talked about echoed what other Iranians were telling her, so his narrative become the thread that tied the film together.

“In the end it showed my main reason of why I really wanted to show this,” she says. “I wanted to focus on our similarities versus our differences because, knowing both cultures and knowing the conversations from both cultures I couldn’t stress enough that our similarities are more than our differences. And, at the end, it comes down to the core of a human being; what’s important for us as a human is what’s important to them.”

Nobody’s Enemy

Sarmast has been shopping Nobody’s Enemy around to networks, no one’s picked the film up. In fact, she found out through the grapevine that one network she showed it to thought it was little more than Iranian propaganda. She says that was frustrating, “but what can you do?”

Sarmast is continuing in her efforts to increase intercultural understanding and is in the midst of launching a cross-cultural social media website.